Beautiful Fall Days in North Carolina

The last 2 years, we had hoped our fall travels would bring slightly cooler temperatures but not too cold with views of mountains covered with the vibrant colors of fall. We initially left Pennsylvania, Oct. 8, 2019 and traveled south through Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama through October and November. While we saw some vibrant colors on the trees, it was a very cold fall and the leaves disappeared quickly. The next year, we headed out of Pennsylvania earlier, spending some of August in Ohio, then we headed south quickly through Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama reaching Florida by late October. The entire trip was hot and we didn’t see any fall leaves. So this year, we thought we would try leaving in October again and spend some time in North Carolina to catch the perfect fall weather.

We did enjoy the Smoky Mountains in 2019 even though it was pretty cold at the end of October.

We finally succeeded. We have been in North Carolina for the past 2 weeks and the weather has been perfect. Temperatures during the day are in the low 70s with cool nights in the 50s and mid 40s. The leaves are changing slowly and we are starting to see some nice colors. I expect we should see peak color while we are here. We are staying at a Thousand Trails campground, Forest Lake, which is near Lexington, NC in the Piedmont region for 3 weeks. This is a perfect campground for the fall, with its wooded setting surrounding a small lake. We are in an older section of the campground which is more wooded which I like. Tim was a bit worried about the trees damaging the RV as we were driving in since we sit pretty high. Luckily the site itself is pretty open with trees beside us but not over top of the RV.

The pedestrian bridge that connects the older section of the campground to the newer section where the clubhouse, grill and pools are.

Lexington, NC has a quaint downtown area with older buildings housing shops and restaurants. We visited a few of the stores, including a few family businesses that have been in operation for over 50 years. The Candy Factory was cute and had every kind of candy imaginable. I was good and didn’t buy any treats (yet). Lanier Ace Hardware was huge and had everything one could need for any project as well as stocking your house. I went to Conrad and HInkle Food Market, a family owned grocery store, which took me back to stores from my childhood. I don’t think the store has changed since the 60’s. They are known for their meats, and I was surprised to see that you had to go to the butcher counter to order. No prepackaged meats. Fresh meats cut to order which are then wrapped in paper. The prices were reasonable too.

A fun place to visit. Check out the pig sitting by the planter.

Pig in front of Conrad and Hinkle Food Market. They are also known for their homemade pimento cheese. I bought some and it is delicious.

The historic court house is now a history museum. I visited it while Tim enjoyed visiting the hardware store. The original barbecue started in this square in the early 1900’s.

The area is know for barbeque and there are at least 15 barbecue restaurants in the area. To advertise their barbecue history, most of the stores have these cute pigs outside their doors. There is even a scavenger hunt to find all of the pigs in town. We have tried Tarheel Q for barbecue and it was quite good. Hopefully we can try a few more while we are in the area.

Pig in the visitors center. Every pig is different and decorated so nicely.

There are also 6 wineries in the area and they all make drier red wines which I highly enjoy. So far, we have been to 3 of them and I liked most of the wines that I tasted. My favorite so far is Childress Vineyards for its beautiful buildings and landscape. I might also have enjoyed it more because we went there to celebrate our 33rd anniversary. They have a nice restaurant in a beautiful setting so a perfect place for a celebration. If you are a Nascar fan, Richard Childress started this winery when he retired from racing. He has a museum nearby as well but I am not sure if we will stop there.

Tim and Trent at the entrance to the Cafe at Childress Vineyards.

View from the patio of the cafe and grounds at Childress Vineyards.

I succumbed to dessert, pumpkin creme brûlée.

The best thing about these wineries is that they all seem to have entertainment on the weekend. We spent Sunday afternoon at Weathervane Winery enjoying musical entertainment from a guitarist/singer. It was a perfect way to spend a sunny day.

On our way here, we enjoyed driving through the mountains of West Virginia and Virginia. We stopped for one night in West Virginia at Flatwoods KOA. I am not sure if we would stop there again. It was convenient to the interstate so a good stop for one night but access is up a steep hill and the sites were not the most level. It took us a while but we got level enough to stay connected to the truck and put out the slides for the night. We got on the road the next morning so didn’t spend too much time in the area.

From there we headed through Virginia and then stopped at Mayberry Campground in Mt. Airy, NC for 2 nights. We heard about the campground and town from other RVers so had to check out Andy Griffiths hometown on which Mayberry was based.. The campground was large, set up nicely with large level sites and was close to town. We spent a full day touring the town, checking out all of the Mayberry memorabilia and then visited a nearby winery to check out the mountain views. Mt. Airy was a fun place to visit and I can see why everyone recommended it.

Tourists can tour the town in one of these police cars. We didn’t try that but enjoyed seeing them cruise through town.

I checked out the jail cell. Good treatment in Mayberry - you have a TV in your cell.

While we were in Mount Airy, we visited Round Peak Winery which wasn’t too far from the campground. They had a large deck out back with a gorgeous view of the rolling hills and mountain in the distance. It was a perfect place to visit and sit for awhile after a day of touring around the town. Mt Airy is only about an hour’s drive from Lexington so we may take a drive back over there while we are here. I am looking forward to 2 more weeks enjoying the wineries, barbecue, countryside and small towns in the area.

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